The winter holidays have begun and that means our Chapters Council midwinter meeting is just around the corner.

Each chapter is allowed two representatives to Chapters Council who share one vote on behalf of the Chapter, so every Chapter should be making arrangements to ensure they are represented at the Sunday morning (8:30 to 11:00 AM) meeting.

Immediately following our meeting, Chapters Council will again host the ACRL Presidential Candidates Forum and luncheon, so you will want to plan to attend both events.

Our meeting will include a mix of business matters, topical updates and important ACRL news (see preliminary agenda). We will have a Council discussion on funding issues precipitated by a new ACRL task force that is investigating supplemental funding models for supporting the work of ACRL units and Chapters with a goal of replacing the Initiative Fund with a more effective system. I have been asked to join this task force, and in turn I am asking our Chapter leaders to help me identify problems with existing funding models and suggest what a new model should look like to better meet the needs of our Chapters.

Please do a little research into your Chapter's funding prior to this meeting. In the past 3 years has your Chapter requested Initiative Funds? Have you requested an officer visit via the ACRL Speakers Bureau? Have you taken advantage of ACRL funds designated for your Chapter ($1.00 for each local member, plus a potential of $10 for each new ACRL member in your area dependent on documented recruitment efforts at the local level)? What expenses does your Chapter incur, and how are they covered?

I would love to hear from you regarding any aspect of our ACRL Chapters and/or Chapters Council. Please contact me at lkopecky@uwm.edu. I look forward to seeing you in New Orleans.

All ACRL members are invited to attend the annual ACRL Presidential Candidates Forum and Luncheon on Sunday January 20th, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Marriott Mardi Gras BRD.

The Forum is coordinated by Chapters Council and is again being generously sponsored by EBSCO Subscription Services. This is an opportunity to meet candidates Tyrone Cannon (University of San Francisco) and John Popko (University of Seattle) and hear their responses to questions concerning academic librarianship and their visions for ACRL's future. There will also be time allowed for questions from the audience.

Special thanks to the ACRL Presidential Candidates Forum Committee co-chaired by Janette Griffin and Darla Rushing and to Shannon Cary, ACRL Director of Research and Special Projects as they organize this event.

The ACRL Distance Learning Section (DLS) is continuing its liaison activity with other ACRL Sections and Chapters as well as selected ALA units. The mission of DLS is to provide leadership in promoting and supporting the development and delivery of library services for distance learning programs offered by higher education institutions and to educate the profession as a whole about this exciting field of academic librarianship.

Institutions define distance learning students and/or what constitutes distance education courses differently. However one common denominator is the need for developing and delivering library support to such students and the faculty teaching them. Library services for distance learners not only impacts the parent institution, but also impacts other academic, public, and special libraries in the areas where students live and work.

Is your Chapter planning a program or discussion on issues related to library services for distance learning? Are Chapter members interested in more information on these issues? If so, DLS may be able to help. As a section, we are interested in co-sponsoring programs with you, identifying DLS members who might help you facilitate discussions, or helping in other ways.

Please contact me if your chapter is planning a program related to distance learning, or if I can answer any questions for you. For more information on DLS, please visit our website.

Are you looking for a way to become more involved in ACRL on a national level? If so, then consider running for one of the ACRL Chapter Council officer positions.

Sherri Edwards is currently seeking nominations for candidates to stand for election to the positions of secretary and vice-chair/chair-elect for 2002-2003. Candidates should have some experience with Chapters Council and be able to attend the ALA annual and midwinter conferences. Self-nominations are welcome.

Candidates will be announced in the spring issue of Chapter Topics, with elections to take place during the Chapters Council meeting at the annual conference in Atlanta. Don't miss this opportunity to help represent the Council and all of our local chapters within ACRL national. If you are interested in running, please contact Sherri Edwards at edwards.49@nd.edu or 219-631-4034.

The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) may be coming to your state. Introduction of this act is anticipated in California, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, New York, and Wisconsin. UCITA is a proposed state contract law developed to regulate transactions in intangible goods such as computer software, online databases, and other information products.

UCITA is bad for academic libraries because it replaces the public law of copyright with the private law of contract. If your Chapter wants to learn more about UCITA and how to fight it in your state, the ALA Washington Office can provide training or connect you with a UCITA expert in your area. To find out more about this training, contact Shannon Cary ( scary@ala.org) at the ACRL office.

Share your message with a national audience! ACRL invites quality proposals for presentation at its eleventh National Conference, "Learning to Make a Difference," and encourages your chapter to get involved!

The conference will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 10-13, 2003. The conference will emphasize the need for academic and research librarians to anticipate and prepare for transformations in the profession and will encourage innovative ways to create and implement change. Conference programs will address a host of issues facing librarians in the 21st century, such as collaborations and competition; teaching and learning; assessment and accountability; technical and access services; the library as people and place; and innovations in academic librarianship.

ACRL seeks the best ideas of our profession and invites proposal submissions for contributed papers, panel sessions, workshops, poster sessions, preconferences, and roundtable discussions. The full text of the Call for Participation is available at the ACRL national conference Web site at: www.ala.org/acrl/charlotte/. The Call also appears as an insert in the November issue of C&RL News. Proposals should be sent with the completed program proposal form and sent to the appropriate committee co-chair listed in the Call.

If your chapter regularly conducts or is planning to conduct a promotion for ACRL national membership, you can earn additional funding for your chapter. Beginning in the 1999-2000 year, the ACRL Board of Directors approved additional funding in the amount of $10 for each new national member of ACRL in the Chapter's geographic region if the Chapter conducts recruitment activities to promote membership in national ACRL. To be considered for the additional funding, summarize any membership promotion in the Chapter annual report and attach any supporting documents, such as samples of letters or flyers from the promotion. For further information, contact the ACRL office at acrl@ala.org.

The annual Alabama ACRL business and program meeting at the RSA Plaza Terrace in Montgomery was very informative. The program featured the Library Mentoring Program at Auburn University with panel members Stella Bentley, Sterling Coleman, and Sheri Downer.

Dr. Bentley is Dean of the Library and has fostered and supported the mentoring program. Ms. Downer, Assistant Dean for Technical Services and Systems has served as a mentor, and Mr. Coleman was mentored in the Auburn program.

The goals of the Auburn program include: attracting new minority librarians to academic librarianship; providing a supportive environment for the resident's first professional position; increasing library faculty diversity at Auburn University; and attracting more diverse pools for tenure track positions.

As many of you already know, CARL is the California chapter of ACRL. Planning is in full swing for the 9th CARL Conference ( Generating Knowledge: The Power of Academic and Research Libraries) to be held at Asilomar, CA May 9-12, 2002. Confirmed speakers/panelists already includes Delaine Eastin, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Bill Fisher, President-Elect of the Special Libraries Association and Clifford Lynch, Director of the Coalition for Networked Information. Registration information will soon be available at http://library.csumb.edu/CARL2002/registration.html

Bonnie Gratch Lindauer of the City College of San Francisco has been awarded the 2001 CARL Research Award. The $2000 award went to her and her team's proposal "Developing and Field-Testing Valid Information Competency Assessment Instruments: A Collaboration of Bay Area Community College and CSU Librarians." Her team of co-proposers includes Brian Lym, City College of San Francisco, Micca Gray, Santa Rosa Junior College, and Topsy N. Smalley, Cabrillo College.

At its last meeting, the CARL Executive Board discussed funding scholarships for California library school students to attend the CARL conference. The Board felt it was important to support future librarians in becoming professional active early on in their careers and involved with the local ACRL chapter specifically. The Board approved funding for at least 2 student scholarships to attend the conference. Additionally the Board agreed that any revenues over cost for local CARL Interest Group programs would be contributed to a future CARL Conference Scholarship fund.

Stanley Wilder, Assistant Dean, River Campus Libraries of the University of Rochester who shared the results of his ARL-supported research on the demographics of the library profession.

Kimberly Robles-Smith, CSU Fresno, presented the results of an analysis of recent job announcements trends from her research with Beverly Lynch (UCLA).

Blanche Woolls, School of Library & Information Science Program Director, San Jose State University, session was titled "Who will replace us in the future and what new skills will they bring?"

Afternoon session:

Patricia Cruse, California Digital Library, showed us the latest release of "Counting California", which presents a single interface to historical and current socioeconomic data from federal, state, and local government agencies.

Rosalie Lack, California Digital Library, discussed usability studies designed to get feedback from users to help improve web sites.

Government Information Librarians Ben Amata (CSU Sacramento), Marcia Meister (UC Davis), and Carol Doyle (CSU Fresno) gave us new skills for locating web-based information on legislation, on statistics, and using government-specific search engines to help locate information on subjects such as energy and the environment.

The Delaware Valley Chapter, the Alpha Chapter of ACRL, celebrated its 50th anniversary with a one and one-half day conference at the Adams' Mark Hotel in Philadelphia on October 13th and 14th of 2001. Nine different programs covered such diverse topics as recruiting minority faculty to the profession; how to help foster information literacy discussion with faculty; and the use of web based technology in Archives and Special Collections.

Evan Farber, Earlham College, Librarian Emeritus, gave a session on collaborating with faculty for bibliographic instruction. He demonstrated an unrehearsed dialogue with a faculty member from St. Joseph's University interested in setting up instruction for a class. Participants were able to watch some of his classic techniques which have enabled him to so successfully partner with faculty in creating learning experiences for students.

In addition, invited speakers Mary Rechiel of Appalachian State University and national President of ACRL, Neil Kleinman of University of the Arts of Philadelphia, and Glorianna St. Clair of Carnegie Mellon University, and the journal Portal, enlightened the group on a wide variety of issues and topics facing academic libraries. Summaries of the sessions and links to some of the individual presentations are available at http://www.acrldvc.org/arch_prog.html.

The DVC/ACRL Conference served as a preconference to the 100th anniversary meeting of the Pennsylvania Library Association, which was also held at the Adam's Mark. This successful gathering was one of the more ambitious and best-attended conferences in chapter history.

The Florida Chapter of ACRL held its annual fall workshop October 19 in Orlando. The workshop, "We're Digitizing Florida: Get the Picture?", focused on major digitization projects. Chapter President Sarah Johnson selected presenters to highlight projects from county records offices to major university collections. Speakers included David Seaman, Director, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia and Laura N. Gasaway, Director of the Law Library, University of North Carolina. Dr. Seaman took the group on a tour of the University of Virginia's electronic text Web site while Dr. Gasaway talked about the copyright issues accompanying digitization.

Other speakers included Eric Kesse, University of Florida; Burt Altman, Florida State University, Selma K. Jaskowski, University of Central Florida; Maggie Doherty, University of South Florida; Kevin Logan, Lakeland Public Library; Jim Powell, Jr., Alachua County Clerk of the Court, Alachua County; Maria R. Estorino, University of Miami. Alachua County's Jim Powell, Jr., charmed workshop attendees with his humor and enthusiasm for his project. He's becoming so well known, people in other Florida counties are seeking him out for help with their projects.

The spring workshop was held April 10 - 13 in Kissimmee, Florida. Stephen Bell, library director at Philadelphia University was the keynote speaker. His presentation was titled "How Do You Keep Up with Everything?: Developing a Personal E-Stragegy for Professional Current Awareness". Walt Crawford, information architect at Research Libraries Group, Inc. (RLG) spoke about "Unloading the Overload. Informal Comments on My Own Strategies for Appearing to Know What's What -- Without Going Completely Crazy in the Process".

At the annual conference of the Kentucky Library Association, held in Owensboro, KY on October 17-20, the Academic Library Section/ACRL Chapter sponsored a very successful presentation by Walt Crawford, "Finding the Ways that Work." Walt spoke about the necessity for libraries to find a workable mix of old and new technologies that get the job done.

At this same meeting Elaine Moore, of Western Kentucky University was presented the award for "Outstanding Academic Librarian." The Academic Section also awarded a professional development grant to Kerri Scannell of the University of Kentucky's Little Fine Arts Library, to attend a music cataloging seminar.

The Academic Section/ACRL chapter elected new officers at the October 18 business meeting: The Chair-elect is Margo Smith (University of Louisville); the secretary is Warren Gray (Southeast Community College) and the treasurer is Nelda Sims (Western Kentucky University).

Planning is underway for the Spring Meeting which will be held at Lake Cumberland State Resort Park on April 10-12, 2002. The featured speaker will be Roberta Shaffer, Executive Director of the Special Libraries Association.

ACRL-LA met under the theme "2001: An Information Odyssey" on October 25 at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. The keynote speaker was Patricia Ianuzzi of the Moffitt Library at the University of California - Berkeley. Her talk, entitled "Exploring New Roles for Academic Librarians: The Information Literacy Odyssey," was informative and inspirational. As a result, our chapter will be pursuing ways to increase our knowledge of and involvement in information literacy.

For evening entertainment, many attended a performance by the Capitol Steps, a comedy troupe made up of current and former Congressional staffers.

Our chapter is sponsoring a pre-ALA workshop on ACRL standards led by Bill Nelson and Bob Fernekes of the CLS Standards Committee on January 18, 2002. Members of our chapter are also assisting with the arrangements for the ACRL Presidential Candidates Forum and Luncheon on Jan 20, 2002 (Noon to 2:00pm).

Twelve programs were sponsored by ARLD at the annual Minnesota Library Association conference in St. Cloud, Minnesota during October 10-12, 2001. A few of the well-attended programs were "Library Anxiety -- Is it real? What is the cure?" "Oxymorons: Using Humor","Personalizing the Campus Web", "GIS Resources for Minnesota", "There's a Method to the Madness."

At the ARLD breakfast meeting an idea to begin an instructional interest group was introduced and attendees were enthusiastic. Hopefully, the proposed plans for "regional" meetings so more teaching-librarians can attend and participate in the "Best Teaching Practices of Minnesota's Academic Librarians" will become reality in 2002.

The ARLD committee is busy planning the annual ARL Day for April 2002 on issues of managing existing collections in academic libraries. Plans are tentatively being made to have two presenters share their "solution" for each collection management issue during approximately 30-45 minutes followed immediately by equal time for discussion with participants. Pre-registration will limit each of the 4-6 sessions so they will not be too large to encourage participation and discussion.

Minnesota will also have a representative attending the ALA midwinter preconference on "Creating Chapter Leaders." We are fortunate that the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) offered some funding to sponsor a volunteer to attend this training.

The annual conference of the Mississippi Library Association was held October 17-19 in Jackson, Mississippi. Three full days of stimulating programs and activities embodied the conference theme, Mississippi Libraries @ Your Service. William Gordon, ALA Executive Director, served as the keynote speaker and participated in various other events throughout the conference.

The Mississippi Chapter of ACRL sponsored Dr. Sue Medina, Director of the Network of Alabama Academic Libraries. In her presentation, she discussed the promises and perils of resource sharing in an electronic environment. Dr. Medina also highlighted some of the risks that librarians face while assuring the best information selection choices for their users and commented on plans of action in the subsequent discussion.

The incoming officers for the chapter were also introduced and included Jeff Slagell (Chair), Gretchen Cook (Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect), and Judith Woodcock (Secretary).

Nevada College and Research Libraries (NCRL) sponsored a program at the Nevada Library Association Annual Conference in October in Las Vegas. Mary Jane Petrowski, Head of Information Literacy at Colgate University, gave a presentation titled "Creativity: What If? What Else? Why Not? Putting Creativity Research to Work for You." The session was well attended and participants' responses were positive.

The Chapter also had a business meeting at the conference and selected Wendy Starkweather, Director of Public Services at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, as chair-elect. She will take on the chairmanship of the Chapter for 2003 and 2004 following the term of current chair, Diane VanderPol

We've had a busy fall term, and are looking forward to spring programs.

On September 28th, the Women Studies' and Business Librarian's Interest Groups welcomed forty-five attendees to their joint program on the Women in Business Project held at Harvard Business School's Spangler Center: "From Unheard Voices to Women, Enterprise and Society: Putting a Guide to Women's History Materials on the Web."

Under the stewardship of Laura Linard, Director of Baker Library's Historical Collections and the leadership of Clara Bouricius, Project Manager of the Women in Business Survey, working women's voices from the 18th-20th centuries are beginning to resonate from Baker Library's Historical Collections through the pages of the "Unheard Voices" web site http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/unheard_voices/collections.htm

Clara Bouricius and Project Staff presented a fascinating overview of the women's history materials in the Baker Library's business manuscript collections and the challenges inherent in locating, organizing and providing access to these important archival collections. The aim of the "Unheard Voices" web site is to inform scholars about what is in the collection with links to the Baker Library's online catalog records that, in turn, link to the collection's finding aids. The materials themselves are not being digitized.

"Unheard Voices" will be superseded by an expanded version of the site entitled "Women, Enterprise and Society,” which will provide an indexed guide to 182 collection level descriptions and concentrate on women, enterprise, and society. The site will have 5 divisions: Introduction to the Collections, Collections, Index, Bibliography, and Site Map. Three indexes will be made available: an alphabetical index, an index to the collections by place and date, and a subject index. These indexes will be hot linked to the collection descriptions. Karen Bailey, Rare Books Librarian, explained the multiple linkages that are being made to/from Hollis to the web site and the challenges involved in providing links from the finding aids and collection descriptions to the Baker Library's OPAC records.

Carol Ellerbeck, Business Information Taxonomist for the Baker Library, talked about subject access and the benefits of a faceted schema in locating materials on the web. Sam Hainer, Senior Web Designer, concluded with an interesting presentation on the web site's design and interface issues and how the project moved from simply being an initial tour of the collection to a product where researchers can determine both what the collection holds, and what it doesn't have. Sam explained how metadata and a taxonomic structure were critical to this progression.

On 5 October the Information Technology Interest Group held a meeting to talk about managing electronic serials. Thirty-four people came to hear speakers Olga Verbeek (Salve Regina) on managing e-resources with Cold Fusion/Access, Elizabeth Thomsen (NOBLE) on managing e-resources on a library consortium level, and Pat Noreau (U Mass Lowell) on Serials Solutions. Their next meeting will be in March at U Mass Boston. They will discuss PDAs and their applications in libraries.

The ACRL/NEC Fall Conference took place on November 9, 2001 at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The theme of this year’s event was "Core Values: Anchors in a Sea of Change". which featured discussions on topics such as library service with respect for the individuality and the diversity of all people, excellence in professional service, preserving the human record, and the formation of partnerships to advance core values. The first speaker was Shelley Quezada, Consultant for Library Services to the Unserved of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Her presentation entitled, "Nothing about Us without Us: Planning Library Services for People with Disabilities, an Inclusive Process", described services to diverse populations including legal aspects, ALA initiatives, assistive technology, library resources, special accommodations, and strategies in the planning process for special users.

Maureen Sheridan, Director of Institutional Advancement at the Providence Public Library, which was this year’s recipient of the 2001 National Award for Library Service, presented on excellence in professional service. Maureen explained how and why PPL was honored as an outstanding library that made significant and exceptional contributions to its community while demonstrating extraordinary and innovative approaches to public service, reaching beyond the expected levels of community outreach and core programs generally associated with library services. The main qualification for selection is community service, as demonstrated by the library’s ongoing commitment at every level to its community.

The highlight of the conference was the address , "A Light on the Darkling Plain: Core Values 2001", given by GraceAnne DeCandido, renowned author, editor and consultant. She eloquently expressed her views on the core values of librarianship interspersed with quotations from historical figures such as Julian of Norwich, St. Theresa of Avila, and President Bill Clinton.

After lunch, Barbara Canyes, Executive Director of Massachusetts Campus Compact, spoke about "Civic Engagement Today & Tomorrow: Critical Issues in a Changing World". She explained the creation and efforts of Campus Compact, which has representation in many college and university campuses across the United States. Their main objective is to encourage and develop community service as part of the higher education experience.

The next speaker was James Roth, Archivist at the John F. Kennedy Library, who presented "The Past as Memory for the Future: Preserving America’s Political and Cultural Heritage at the John F. Kennedy Library". James discussed the mission and goals of the JFK Library, its history, current activities, and his own work as archivist of the Ernest Hemingway Collection. This last presentation prepared the group for the culminating activity of the conference, the tour of the JFK Library featuring the special exhibition, "Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years". This exhibition marked the 40th Anniversary of Jacqueline Kennedy’s emergence as America’s first lady, and featured 80 original costumes and accessories as well as documents, photographs, film and objects associated with Mrs. Kennedy’s work on White House restoration, historic preservation, and the arts.

The Collection Development Interest Group holds its first meeting of the year on December 13, 2001. Will Wakeling, Collection Development Officer at Northeastern University, speaks on “Building a New Jigsaw: Restructuring Collection Development with Changing Components.”

Our Fall 2001 conference at the University of Albany on October 22 on " Exploring Diversity in Academic Libraries: Whose Needs Are We Meeting?" drew over eighty attendees. Keynote speaker Hope Olson, Associate Professor, School of Library & Information Studies, the University of Alberta, Edmonton, spoke passionately on the topic: "Libraries Constructing Meaning: Ours Is Not a Neutral Space." Her presentation looked at concepts such as mainstream and margins, diversity and difference, objectivity and inclusion, equality and equity through a theoretical lens, and related these to professional and institutional practices and values.

A panel of librarians from the University of Albany addressed " The Electric Library: Implications for Accessing Alternative Press Periodicals". We continued to celebrate our chapter's 25th anniversary, and were honored to have Anne Roberts, chair of the Steering Committee that formed ENY/ACRL speak at lunch. The afternoon featured a rousing interactive session with Sandra Rios Balderrama, Director of the Office of Diversity at ALA, on "Recruiting for Diversity: How to Make it Work". We closed out the day with two simultaneous sessions, one led by George Abbott, Head, Media Services Department, Syracuse University Library, on " Delivering Library Services to Users with Special Needs", and the other led by Brenda Marston, Curator, Human Sexuality Collection & Women's Studies Selector, Cornell University Library, who gave us " A Whirlwind Look at Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender Issues in Academic Libraries".

Also at the Fall conference, the Janice Graham Newkirk Research Award, which includes a check for $500, was presented to Carol Anne Germain, University at Albany; and to three librarians at SUNY Oswego--James Nichols, Karen Shockey and Barbara Shaffer. Ms. Germain plans to expand on research she conducted last spring which focused on Albany's "UNL 205," a credit-bearing information literacy course, build on her research findings, and develop a web-based tool that will provide additional learning support for students. The team from SUNY Oswego will also work on issues related to information literacy. They plan to study the effectiveness of a newly developed online information literacy tutorial and compare it to the traditional lecture/demonstration in-library counterpart.

Planning is underway for the Spring 2002 ENY/ACRL conference to be held at Cornell University on Monday, May 6. The theme of the conference is " May You Live in Interesting Times: Current Issues in Information Access." Topics will cover a range of issues, including intellectual freedom and facilities concerns. For more conference information please check the ENY/ACRL web site after January 2002. http://www.enyacrl.org/ -- which is being redesigned by our Communications committee.

The WNY/O ACRL, Inc. unveiled a new member listserv this past July. The listserv is developed to improve communication to our members, to distribute conference information, and to facilitate a forum to discuss issues relevant to colleagues in both US and Canada. The 2001-2002 membership has increased 44% from 2000-2001. Part of the growth includes an increase of 64% in Canadian membership. This is due to active recruiting efforts and the use of the member listserv for sending out membership renewal notices.

The Fall Conference was held on October 26, 2001 in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. The conference titled “Reinventing Library Space” featured three sessions: Dr. Joel A. Cohen and Karen Bordonaro from Canisius College on Wireless Instruction Lab at Canisius College; Tanis Fink and Joy Muller from Seneca College on Seneca College’s Learning Commons; and Claire Callaghan from University of Western Ontario and Mary Ann Mavrinac from University of Toronto at Mississauga on Quotes Café at the University of Western Ontario.

The North Dakota-Manitoba Chapter held its annual meeting on May 10, 2001 at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, and the workshop topic was virtual reference services. Ms. Blythe Bennett, Q&A Coordinator, Virtual Reference Desk Information Institute, was the keynote speaker. In the morning, Ms. Bennett presented key rubrics for running and managing digital reference services in libraries including building, training, managing, and evaluating such services.

The Chapter members actively participated in a group discussion in the afternoon and attempted to offer solutions to some service issues involved in running digital reference services.

The Chapter was officially incorporated in October 2000. At the 2001 annual meeting, in an effort to expand its professional development activities, the Chapter reviewed ACRL funding sources and established a working group to develop a project towards the ACRL Initiative Funds. Subsequently, the idea was postponed based on the information exchanged at the 2001 Chapters Council Meeting in San Francisco. In the meantime, the Chapter members informally will be exchanging possible project ideas via its mailing list.

The 27th annual conference, "Thriving on Chaos, Leading Change," brought together academic library personnel from across the state for a day of collegiality, networking, and professional development activities. Attendance was 295. Based on the evaluations that were returned, attendees overwhelmingly rated it a success.

Emily Mobley, Dean of Libraries at Purdue University, presented the keynote speech that started the conference.

Alison Ricker, Oberlin College, was the recipient of the 2001 Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award.

Carolyn Radcliff, Julie Gedeon, and Lisa O'Connor, all from Kent State University, received the 2001 Research Grant award from Meri Meredith, Chair of the Research and Publications Committee.

Elizabeth Burns, OSU-Mansfield, won a Palm Pilot personal data assistant in a drawing of all persons registered for the conference. Some vendors shared in giving items away.

Sherri Saines, Ohio University, won a one-year subscription to American Film Institute Online from Proquest. Rory Patterson from Cedarville University won the reference book , Facts about the World's Languages, from H. W. Wilson.

The day included 13 vendors, 9 poster sessions, 7 information tables, and 20 presentations. All five Interest Groups held their annual business meetings and sponsored presentations. Visit our conference website at http://www.alaoweb.org/01conf/ for links to presentations, abstracts, poster sessions and more.

In Fall 2000, we kicked off our effort to revitalize the Western Pennsylvania ACRL Chapter with a presentation by Althea Jenkins, ACRL Executive Director. We invited academic librarians from West Virginia to the meeting to join us for the program. The consensus of that meeting was to proceed and to create a chapter for librarians from both West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania.

A small group of volunteers convened to look at structure and to revitalize the chapter. In December 2000, we held an information fair and mixer for members to build up interest and to solicit more information about how members would like the chapter to proceed. By July 2001 chapter bylaws had been written and the chapter was legally incorporated in the state of Pennsylvania.

Shortly thereafter, efforts focused on program planning and member recruitment. Through the generous time and efforts of volunteers, we held our first meeting as an incorporated chapter on November 19, 2001. Our guest speaker was Dr. José-Marie Griffiths, Doreen E. Boyce Chair in Library & Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, speaking on issues of libraries' preparedness and response to national disasters. Her talk was entitled, "9-11 Reflections, Roles & Responsibilities in the Aftermath of Tragedy." Cosponsoring the meeting was the School of Information Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh and SCALA, the Student Chapter of the American Library Association.

Following the business meeting and talk by Dr. Griffiths, speakers, librarians and library school students broke into small dinner groups and headed out to nearby restaurants. Plans are already underway for future programming in the spring. Student members are eager to help develop a workshop on job seeking, career development and job success. We know we're off to a good start and are delighted with member response. To learn more about the chapter and its activities, see the chapter web site at http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/wpwvc-acrl/

The Washington State and Oregon ACRL Chapters held a joint conference, " The Digital Challenge: Creating the 21st Century Academic Library", at Pack Forest, Washington on October 25-26.

A thought-provoking keynote address (http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/presentations/2001acrl/acrl.htm) was given by Roy Tennant, Manager, eScholarship Web & Services Design, California Digital Library. Roy listed our current challenges as copyright restrictions, the convenience of electronic resources which leads to underutilization of print, making searching as user friendly as possible, promoting XML, and subverting the current publishing paradigm.

Linda White, Digital Project Coordinator for the Library of Congress Cooperative Digital Reference Service, gave an overview of this new service that included a panel discussion.

Other sessions addressed scholarly communication, Web portals, use of the Web in library instruction, a one-stop source for journal article location regardless of format, and implementation of SFX at Washington State University.

At the business meeting, changes to the bylaws were passed. The abandonment of paper mailings in favor of entirely electronic was supported by the membership present. Washington Chapter and CLAMS (College Librarians and Media Specialists of Washington State) each supported a scholarship to the conference. Vendors were most generous in their financial support that kept registration fees low. The traditional Thursday evening pumpkin carving with silent auction of results the following day netted funds for the American Red Cross/Liberty Fund.

The Washington Chapter will be co-sponsoring a program with the Oregon Chapter before the joint Washington-Oregon Library Association Conference to be held in April 2002 in Portland, Oregon.

Lynn Chmelir, Washington Chapter President, poses with Sarah McCord, who won the Chapter's scholarship to attend their fall conference.

The ACRL Institute for Information Literacy Wisconsin Immersion program was held June 3-8, 2001 at Edgewood College in Madison. The WAAL Information Literacy Committee worked diligently for approximately two years to bring the Institute to Wisconsin and then to host the one-week event. Out of the total number of 90 participants, forty-nine were from Wisconsin. Several came from Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and California; some even came from Alaska and Hawaii. (see attachment #1 for picture)WAAL generously provided three scholarships to members to attend.

Our information literacy efforts are being recognized outside the state. Peter Hernon, faculty member at Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science in Boston will include the WAAL "Information Literacy Competencies and Criteria for Academic Libraries in Wisconsin" in his book "An Action Plan for Outcomes Assessment in Your Library" (November 2001, ALA)

The annual academic conference was held in April on the banks of the Mississippi River in La Crosse as it was flooding. We got to see lots of media coverage as the water rose closer to our hotel but nevertheless, approximately 175 attendees participated in high quality presentations , including a keynote address by ACRL President, Mary Reichel.

The annual state library conference (WLA) was held October 24 - 26 in Appleton. WAAL sponsored 3 programs and cosponsored five programs with other sections, among them: "Virtual Reference Tools", "Making a Difference in Libraries", "Reference Librarians Real Time Chat Session", "Catalog Record Enhancement."

The WAAL Information Literacy Committee sponsored a program at this conference titled, "Information Literacy Planning: the ACRL and Wisconsin Academic Library Link". Speakers were Jean Ruenger-Hanson and Marsha Forys, librarian from University of Iowa libraries, and member of the ACRL task force that drafted the "ACRL Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction: A Model Statement for Academic Libraries".

In conjunction with the 2001 WLA conference, WAAL hosted a one day invitational leadership day. The purpose of this program was to give potential leaders in the profession an opportunity to meet their colleagues and form professional partnerships. Thirteen potential leaders were paired with mentors from WAAL and an informative and fun day was had by all participants.